Shocking News about Ernesto Guevara
So you've probably seen that guy before. ....but have you ever heard him speak?
Here's what we know: he was Argentine, from an established porteno family, i.e. a family from Buenos Aires. Spanish speakers will also know that portenos are famous for their distinct accent as well as the many local slang words they use. One of these later became the nickname of the man above, namely "che", a term that's akin to man/dude/bro. Ernesto was given this nickname in Cuba for his frequent use of the word, so clearly distinct from the others around him.
Then, over the past week I've seen the Steven Soderbergh directed
Che: Part I and
Che: Part II starring Benicio del Toro. These films are neither amazing nor atrocious, I'm glad I saw them but it really didn't add anything to my understanding of the person or politics of Ernesto Guevara. Two aspect were quite commendable though: First, the fact that the films are in Spanish, except where appropriate (although none of the Bolivian indigenous people ever speak indigenous languages, not even amongst themselves - if you've been to Bolivia, you know how ridiculous this oversight is, given that Spanish remains a second language in many of the rural areas even today); Second, the emphasis on Guevara's struggles with his strong asthma, a near-fatal problem on several occasions and source of great anguish to him personally as he felt his body fail him while his will to continue the
lucha never waivered*.
However, after watching them and realizing that del Toro won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival last year, I was incensed. Why? Well, for one thing the word "che" rarely is used, especially in the second part. Furthermore, although del Toro uses a number of Argentine idioms, he does so without an accent. "Foul!" I cried. "What blatent misrepresentation of a historical character! And whatever happened to the notion that actors ought to be held to standards of authenticity when playing historical figures?" And that is how the idea for this post was born.
However, before I decided to post what I wrote about the issue, I chose to reassure myself that my outrage was justified.
He spend good parts of his childhood in the family's summer home in the mountains (because of his asthma), I told myself.
Not all of Argentina has a porteno accent. Maybe his mannerisms and idioms were porteno, but his accent wasn't?First, I turned to fellow study-abroad people. Unanimously, they claimed Guevara as "100% porteno", accent and all. Then I began viewing film and recordings of his public speeches. Lo and behold, I was shocked to find that he didn't have an accent at all! So, I'm glad I didn't make a judgemental ass out of myself by posting false information here. However, all the recordings I found are post-revolutionary, i.e. after he has spend a great deal of time in the Cuban movement, where his national identity was at times a source of conflict, which at least gives rise to the idea that he may have subordinated his accents, much as he did other traits of his identity, to the necessities of the revolutionary cause.
So I'm wondering: does anyone out there knows more about this issue?
* On a related note, while observing street protests in Salta, Argentina, a few years back, I saw a protester hold a sign reading "Ser argentino significa luchar" ["to be Argentine means to struggle"], a wonderful caption for the long-running political struggles btween competing forces within that country: authoritarianism-democracy, conservativism-liberalism, indigenous rights-historical oppression, etc.The above photograph is taken from the website of the Malta-Cuba Society (http://www.maltacuba.org/links.html)
